Dragon's Dogma

Pawns And People-Making

Dragon’s Dogma is Capcom’s effort to deliver an action-packed fantasy adventure with RPG elements. The game is quite unlike anything I’ve seen the publisher put out, and a recent TGS 2011 presentation answered a few questions I didn’t know I had. The demo explained more about the pawn system, transportation, and character customization.

The demo started with the developers creating a new character. Crafting a character is a deep process, with more options and adjustment sliders than you’ll ever need to get the slope of your forehead just right. The Capcom developers created a very becoming young lady, going out of their way to increase her bust size. Capcom is confident that players will be able to sink hours into creating characters if they wish.

Your main hero isn’t the only denizen of Dragon’s Dogma that you can create. Pawns, AI partners which accompany you through your quest, can be created and shared with friends. Pawns created by you and your friends will not only populate the game world, but can be recruited by visiting a Rift Stone. This glowing stone will teleport you to a new area, but Capcom isn’t ready to talk about the specifics of the mysterious location yet.

Having allies will come in handy if the mountainside battle I saw was any indication. The demonstrator traveled to the snowy pass by using a Ferrystone, which is a stone that teleports the player in a flash of light when through into the air. White-capped peaks collide with a row of huge Evergreen as a castle looms in the background. The scene reminded me of Isengard from The Lord of the Rings. The crew immediately encounters a huge armored cyclops. The beast’s helmet protects its vulnerable eye, so new non-ocular focused tactics are necessary. The player character, a sorcerer, casts an ice spell which shoots huge tendrils of ice from the ground into the monster. After throwing down a few fire spells, the cyclops is knocked down. The sorcerer’s loyal warrior companions leap on the fallen beast and begin attacking. It becomes clear that this foe can take a beating when it shakes off its attackers an stands again. Changing tactics, the sorcerer moves to a new position, putting the cyclops between her and the steep cliff. A perfectly-timed ice blast knocks the towering creature off the mountain, along with the poor pawn clinging to its helmet. I guess that pawn was interested in taking a shortcut to the cyclops’ loot.

This hands-off demo gave me a good sense of how some important facets of Dragon’s Dogma play out, but it did very little to get me pumped for the day. Everything I’ve seen up until now has gotten me very excited, and I’ve been one of the game’s biggest champions in the Game Informer office. While the pawn system is interesting, I’m looking forward to seeing more about the game’s quests, world, and progression.